Month: August 2014

Jinx Series 2014 – Match 5 – Rolfs Lake – 16-8-2014

The penultimate Jinx Match of the 2014 series today at Rolfs Lake, travelling down from Yew Tree Caravan Park which is 90 miles from Rolfs so a shorter than usual journey. On arriving I met up with Rolf’s Resident Dai Thomas for a coffee before getting my gear out of storage from the container at Rolfs as I had left it behind after the last visit knowing I would not be using it until today.

A phone call from Malc at around 10am, which was expected asking me to run the match as he hadn’t yet left Gemma and Simon’s house, nothing new here then this year, which I was happy to do, well at least there’s one thing I’m good at, even though I can’t catch a fish in an aquarium this year I could at least serve a purpose and organise lol.

The draw was made at 11am and peg 38 was drawn for Malc in his absence, I would be fishing B section today and drew peg 9 which is quite a good draw normally, but then again it has me on it today so an example on how not to do it would be on the cards.

Dai who had won Wednesday’s open from peg 4 with 272lb drew next door with peg 5 and seemed to carry on where he left off, as I witnessed fish after fish on the scales, between Dai and Fred on peg 8, it seemed I was permanently turned around watching the weigh scales, which at least gave me something to do as I was not catching anything or even getting and bites of indications.

In fact I did not get any fish for 3hrs 45mins, when I had my first bite and a fish a carp of around 3lb. I had begun to wonder if I was going to blank at Rolfs, something I’ve not done for many years. I had fished fish 5 different lines both on the deck and up in the water, from a few inches off bottom to a few inches shallow on all kinds of different baits without as much as a nibble. My main approach had been to feed ground bait in the margins and fish pellet or meat over this, which I had been trying for the first 4 hrs without success, so I topped up my margin once more and went for a walk up to peg 5 to see Dai and see where and on what he was catching so many. It turned out he was fishing the margin with banded pellet over dampened micros mixed with ground bait which was exactly what I was doing without success. After which I returned to my peg and once again tried my margin swim and to my surprise the float buried and I was into a decent carp at last, unfortunately the hook snapped on this occasion, but a new hook length was soon fitted and swim topped up again I was into a carp once again with 20 minutes to go, in that time I managed 8 carp all bar one were small net fish with one weigher of 10lb 8oz which produced 51lb 15oz at the scales for 5th in section and 12th overall and yet again a case of too little too late, which has been the story of my Jinx series this year. Now if I can only sort out something to pick up a few carp during the first 4hrs 30mins of a match I’ll be ok lol.

Results

Overall

Pos Name Peg Weight
1 Dai Thomas 5 216-12
2 Clive Pritchard 28 136-14
3 Fred Parker 8 131-6
4 Terry Goff 24 129-14
5 Steve Wilson 10 110-6
6 Keith Stent 26 109-3
7 Mick Jones (Guest) 18 99-15
8 Wez Hillier 7 91-1
9 Neil Riddy 30 83-13
10 Tony Roberts 15 82-4
11 Malc Doyle 38 63-4
12 Ade Williams 2 62-15
13 Nick Williams 9 51-15
14 Dave Collier 14 40-8
15 Adam Griffiths (Guest) 34 40-1
16 Marcus Burgess 4 37-8
17 Kev Loveland 32 31-3
18 Simon Watkins 13 30-15
19 Brenda Stent 22 27-8
20 Gino Exell (Guest) 17 26-12
21 Paul Roberts 40 19-6

Pairs

Pos Names Weight Points
1 Clive Pritchard & Fred Parker 268-14 5
2 Wez Hillier & Neil Riddy 174-14 15
3 Malc Doyle & Steve Wilson 173-10 15
4 Dai Thomas & Brenda Stent 244-4 19
5 Marcus Burgess & Terry Goff 167-6 19
6 Kev Loveland & Keith Stent 140-9 22
7 Nick Williams & Dave Collier 92-7 25
8 Tony Roberts & Paul Roberts 101-10 29
9 Dave Moore & Ade Williams 90-0 30
10 Mike Corsini & Simon Watkins 71-0 31

Sections

A Section

Pos Name Peg Weight
1 Dai Thomas 5 216-12
2 Wez Hillier 7 91-1
3 Malc Doyle 38 63-4
4 Ade Williams 2 62-15
– Adam Griffiths (Guest) 34 40-1
5 Marcus Burgess 4 37-8
6 Paul Roberts 40 19-6

B Section

Pos Name Peg Weight
1 Clive Pritchard 28 136-14
2 Fred Parker 8 131-6
3 Steve Wilson 10 110-6
4 Neil Riddy 30 83-13
5 Nick Williams 9 51-15
6 Kev Loveland 32 31-3
7 Simon Watkins 13 30-15

C Section

Pos Name Peg Weight
1 Terry Goff 24 129-14
2 Keith Stent 26 109-3
– Mick Jones (Guest) 18 99-15
3 Tony Roberts 15 82-4
4 Dave Collier 14 40-8
5 Brenda Stent 22 27-8
– Gino Exell (Guest) 17 26-12

After today’s results Dai Thomas is confirmed as Jinx Champion 2014 with 5 points from 5 matches he cannot be beaten in the final Jinx match in September.

Jinx League Table 2014 after 5 of 6 matches

Pos Name Weight Total Drop Points
1 Dai Thomas 522-12 8 3 5
2 Wez Hillier 373-3 11 3 8
3 Keith Stent 387-11 19 10 9
4 Fred Parker 349-10 19 10 9
5 Malc Doyle 317-4 19 10 9
6 Steve Wilson 517-0 17 6 11
7 Ade Williams 286-10 16 5 11
8 Neil Riddy 399-11 18 6 12
9 Terry Goff 266-12 23 10 13
10 Tony Roberts 221-1 23 10 13
11 Marcus Burgess 220-9 23 10 13
12 Paul Roberts 199-14 19 6 13
13 Clive Pritchard 380-10 21 7 14
14 Nick Williams 252-6 25 7 18
15 Mike Corsini 304-2 29 10 19
16 Dave Collier 241-5 29 10 19
17 Kev Loveland 98-13 25 6 19
18 Simon Watkins 179-10 30 10 20
19 Brenda Stent 130-3 31 10 21
20 Dave Moore 150-0 37 10 27

Jinx League Pairs Table after 5 of 6 matches

Pos Names Weight Total Drop Points
1 Malc Doyle & Steve Wilson 879-12 67 17 50
2 Clive Pritchard & Fred Parker 806-15 83 29 54
3 Wez Hillier & Neil Riddy 772-14 87 27 60
4 Mike Corsini & Simon Watkins 525-6 132 60 72
5 Brenda Stent & Dai Thomas 726-10 104 28 76
6 Dave Moore & Ade Williams 603-2 113 32 81
7 Marcus Burgess & Terry Goff 509-13 129 45 84
8 Nick Williams & Dave Collier 530-11 117 28 89
9 Kev Loveland & Keith Stent 517-14 128 33 95
10 Paul Roberts & Tony Roberts 461-15 126 29 97
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On Tour 2014 – Caravan Road Trip Update 18-8-2014

Time for an update on our Caravan Road Trip 2014.

Quick recap first. Started out from home on July 17th and headed for Rolfs Lake where we set up home for 11 days in the car park curtesy of John & Pauline Bennett. Where I fished Wez Hillier’s weekend event and the MD’s Pairs and opener the following weekend whist Zelma and Andris visited the ice rink, went shopping, swimming and took a trip to London via the Oxford Tube bus service where they rode the London Eye and visited Madame Tusaurds.

Caravan Pitched at Rolfs Lake Car Park.

We then left Rolfs on Monday 28th heading for Yew Tree Farm in the Far Forest nr Kidderminster a new adventure for us as we have not stayed there before, as in previous years on tour we stayed at Chipping Norton, Burford etc on our route back to Wales and ending at Merixton Farm nr Tenby where we meet up with friends for our final week or so of our summer holiday and road trip. Imagine our delight when Yew Tree Farm turned out to be a wonderful campsite, clean well maintained pitches, nice toilet and shower block with laundry facilities plus the site had electric hook ups so no need for the generator and solar panels. These might not sound like much but when you’re touring in a caravan for 6 weeks they become luxuries. Moving day is always hard work, after striking camp loading up the caravan travelling to the new site then unpacking everything and pitching the awning and tent, we were all ready for a chip shop supper and an early night.

From our base here at Kidderminster we visited a lot of places around Birmingham and the midlands, including Ludlow, Stourport, Hereford, Stratford on Avon, Bridgenorth, Bewdley and visited with long time family friends near Stourbridge and Dudley.

We were joined by my Parents on Thursday Aug 14th who spent a couple of days with us visiting the market in Kidderminster and a day out by the river in Stourport before they moved on to stay with our friends Shelia and Bill in Stourbridge until the 23rd while we moved on from Yew Tree Farm on Sunday the 17th heading for the Regional Meet at Merexton Farm nr Tenby to conclude our summer tour for 2014.

Now resident at Merexton Farm until Aug 30th.

MD’s Pairs Weekend – Rolfs Lake – 26/27-07-2014
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MD’s Pairs Weekend – Rolfs Lake – 26/27-07-2014

 

The Maggotdrowner’s Pairs Weekend has been running for some 10 yrs. or more now and I have attended most years as this event is more than just a fishing competition it’s more about the banter and fun taking part with a friendly competition among friends and this year was no different with plenty of banter, pee taking etc. with the whole event making a very enjoyable and fun weekend, a big thanks to organiser and MD’s owner Dave Webster for arranging this every year and John and Pauline for providing Rolfs Lake for us all to fish at.

Day 1 – Saturday 26th July 2014

The first order of the day was for us to draw our pair’s partner and this year my partner was Chrissy, Dave Collier’s daughter. At the draw Chrissy drew peg 34 which is usually good for a few fish and I drew peg 2, oh dear that’s not a good start. Peg 2 for those that have followed my blog will know is my nemeses peg, one of the few pegs at Rolfs I really struggle on, although this weekend I don’t think it will make any difference as I seem capable of messing up any peg lol.

 

With the fact that Rolfs is fishing well this weekend I decided to approach the task of peg 2 by fishing it positively and attacking the peg with the hope that either there would be fish already in the swim willing to feed or I could draw them there and get them to feed. It at least sounded like a good idea, it didn’t work or perhaps more to the point I failed to make it work as I spent most of the match bite less and fishless. A few did turn up very late on the right margin tight into the roots 2mts (top kit) away, nowhere near where I had fed (top2 plus 2) down either margin. Three carp from here in the last 10 mins and a bream I managed to catch at 5mtrs in front earlier on really made no difference as I still managed to end the day dead last with 34lb 4oz, um sorry partner you got a bum draw I’m afraid. Oh well there’s always day 2.

Results Day 1
A Section

Pos Name Peg Weight
1 Malc 7 201-8
2 Spamwham 36 165-6
3 Dai Fish 38 157-15
4 Peter 4 129-2
5 Geoff P 5 104-12
6 Steak 40 76-3
7 Chrissy 34 67-2
8 Neo-1 2 34-3

 

B Section

Pos Name Peg Weight
1 Clive 16 228-9
2 Bagger J 8 226-8
3 Antwood 10 179-2
4 John Bennett 11 149-12
5 John TuTu 14 71-11
6 Jakal 13 50-2
7 Wily Coyote 9 49-8

 

C Section

Pos Name Peg Weight
1 DumDum 26 310-3
2 Naughtycockney 22 140-11
3 Auto 28 118-1
4 Dave 30 111-0
5 SiDev77 24 108-1
6 Dave The Fish 18 65-4
7 DaveRed5 32 36-6

 

Overall Result – Saturday

Last place overall, oh well it can’t get any worse – can it ?

Day 2 – Sunday 27th July 2014

An earlier draw and start/finish times today and at least I didn’t draw peg 2 again, phew! I did however draw peg 28 a peg I’m normally quite comfortable on and usually catch well from this peg, unfortunately today would not be one of my better days on peg 28 lol in fact it’s not been my day on any peg this year bar my first match which was a night match on peg 10 when I caught quite well, on reflection it’s been steadily downhill ever since. A very frustrating day on 28 today with fish showing in my left margin and yet again me showing my lack of ability to catch them, the last time I remember this many fish in 28’s margin I put over 250lb on the scales today I came up 200lb short of that when 250lb would have won the day, oh well another opportunity missed, story of my life these days, think I’ll try using a hook next time lol.


All the gear – No Idea

Results

A Section

Pos Name Peg Weight
1 Dai Fish 7 219-6
2 Malc 36 168-13
3 Spamwham 5 123-14
4 John Bennett 34 98-8
5 Bagger J 40 80-9
6 Steak 4 64-12
7 DaveRed5 38 50-12
8 Geoff P 2 42-9

B Section

Pos Name Peg Weight
1 Peter 16 224-2
2 John TuTu 8 92-0
3 Jakal 14 85-1
4 Auto 11 71-15
5 Wily Coyote 9 62-10
6 Clive 10 57-3
7 Dave The Fish 13 31-13

C Section

Pos Name Peg Weight
1 DumDum 24 227-2
2 Antwood 22 156-5
3 Dave 32 117-10
4 SiDev77 30 84-10
5 Chrissy 26 59-4
6 Neo-1 28 53-6
7 Naughtycockney 18 30-3

Overall


 

Pairs Result
Partners Points
Dai Fish DumDum 12
Bagger J Malc 23
Clive Peter 31
Auto Antwood 34
Dave Steak 48
Geoff P John Bennett 50
Wily Coyote SiDev77 59
John TuTu DaveRed5 65
NaughtyCockney Dave The Fish 70
Chrissy Neo-1 73
Well done to Dai and Adam worthy winners.

 
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Dave Collier’s Invite – Rolfs Lake 25-7-2014

This time of year brings the Maggotdrowning Pairs Weekend which is the pinnacle of my MD year and an event I always try to attend whenever possible. The pair’s weekend is preceded most years by today’s match organised by Dave Collier as a sort of taster for the main event and this year almost all of the anglers fishing the pairs attended the Friday opener. The day started with the usual hustle and bustle of arriving people unloading their vehicles and setting up camp on the grass area behind peg 34. This weekend is a good time to catch up with fellow MDers many of whom I only see on this weekend, and others who I meet up regularly with at the Jinx events. For myself it was an easy morning meeting and greeting and watching others work as they pitched their tents, myself of course like my fellow welsh contender Dai Thomas were already set up at the lake in our respective caravans and were just awaiting to book in and draw our pegs.

The draw was held at 11.30pm with fishing from 1.30pm to 6.30pm and today I drew peg 16, the hottest peg on the lake where I was sure to bake in the sun today if nothing else. I had high expectations for today as peg 16 fished well on Wednesday’s open and plenty of fish could be seen cruising in the area so I was happy with my draw, my fellow welsh buddy Dai also drew well with peg 32.

Peg 16 at Rolfs

I decided to keep things simple today so elected to fish both margins and a line straight out at 5 mtrs with a long line out at 13mtrs to pick off some early carp and maybe a few bream whilst I fed the margins. This all seemed fairly simple all I needed to do was catch the fish, hmm well yes that was the idea at least. I did manage a couple of bream and a carp of 11lb off the long line in the early stages, but soon became distracted by the tails and number of fish in my right margin, now the frustration starts as however hard I tried and whatever methods I employed I just could not connect with the fish today. Trying different baits presented just on, just off, hard on the bottom and shallow still I failed to hook carp properly resulting in too many foul hookers and lost fish. A very frustrating day indeed as the rest of the lake seemed to fish well with Adam on peg 26 weighing in a double ton to win the match and many other 100+ weights to back that up. Rolfs Lake has been fishing really well of late with most anglers reaping the benefits, unfortunately I’m not fishing too good at present which the results clearly show, although the anglers on pegs 13 and 14 didn’t fair very well today either. The fact that I’m typing up these reports almost a week after the event gives me the knowledge of how this peg fished with other anglers on it with Clive and Peter drawing it on Saturday and Sunday and returning weights of 228lb and 226lb respectively it only goes to show what I could have and should have achieved from this peg which only adds to my frustration the only consolation if you can call it that and in my defence is this year I have been struggling with my health and the nerve damage to my back and shoulders maybe causing more problems than I give them credit for and most likely my hand eye co-ordination is slow these days as I’ve not managed to return any big weights at Rolfs or anywhere else for that matter, and by big weights I mean over 150lb. Anyway enough of the sob story and excuses I fished like a cock so deserve what I got, ending up with 31lb odd and down near the bottom of the pack.

 

Results

Pos Name Peg Weight
1 Adam Daniels 26 212-0
2 Alex Clark 30 176-8
3 Peter Morton 28 135-4
4 Geoff Palmer 5 131-15
5 Dai Thomas 32 118-11
6 Clive Pritchard 34 94-15
7 Ant Haywood 22 91-0
8 Jamie Akal 38 89-2
9 Tony Roberts 18 82-15
10 John Holdsworth 40 65-7
11 Dave Webster 24 65-3
12 Terry Goff 2 57-5
13 Dave Collier 9 57-0
14 Steve Akal 4 51-8
15 Chrissy Collier 10 42-11
16 Terry Pearce 7 39-2
17 Nick Williams 16 31-4
18 Gino Exell 8 25-15
19 Simon Watkins 14 14-13
20 Kev Loveland 13 DNW